Friends,
The 12:30pm Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) held a conference call today and briefings suggest we go into a stage two readiness plan and be ready to fully activate Tuesday at noon or before. This activation would include:
· Reviewing protocols. Reporting damage protocol can be found here.
· Forming response teams that would report to district coordinator.
· Certified chainsaw teams should be organizing and be ready to deploy by Thursday afternoon or Friday. If you have trained a group and have not turned that list into the conference yet, please send to Chris Perry for coordination at chris@rsum.org.
· District Coordinators: please begin conversations with you District Superintendent and District Offices and begin communication with churches on preparedness, shelters and anything pertinent to local needs. A local church preparedness form can be found here.
· Coastal churches in the Mobile, Baldwin County and Pensacola areas should take measures to secure your property, protect information and gather relevant documents. Please also assist with the needs of the fragile population including elderly or special needs citizens.
As a note, the North Alabama Conference has 700 tarps, felting nails and strips of various sizes in warehouses available to us, if needed.
Teams should be forming to help with tarping and roofing issues at this time. Please report teams ready to deploy to Susan Hunt at susan@awfumc.org. Please be sure volunteer forms are complete and keep record of your volunteer hours (those begin when you leave home and continue until you complete your trip). Volunteer release forms can be found here. This is critical that we keep an accurate log to get potential relief funding.
Per the National Weather Service, Isaac is predicted at this time to be a high Category 1 or Category 2. Mobile and Southern Baldwin Counties will be under a hurricane warning approximately 36 hours ahead of tropical winds. Probabilities are high for 5-10 foot storm surge and 10-12 inches of rain is possible. Expect weather to deteriorate by Tuesday afternoon.
Please continue to pray for those in the line of the storm and those preparing to serve as volunteers and relief workers. We are keenly aware of our wonderful connection at times like these.
Blessings,
Amelia Fletcher
Alabama-West Florida Conference Disaster Response Coordinator